2001: Year of the Worm

In releasing its annual Dirty Dozen list of the 12 most common viruses, antivirus and security vendor Central Command called 2001 the "Year of the Internet Worm."

Half of the 12 viruses that generated the most virus reports to Medina, Ohio-based Central Command were worms. Sircam, Badtrans.B, Hybris, MTS, KAK and Badtrans.A made the dozen. Sircam was the source of the most reports to Central Command of any virus at 22.7 percent.

"Whether relying on their own internal e-mail technology or exploiting known vulnerabilities in Microsoft Outlook, each of the twelve most prevalent viruses for 2001 capitalized on e-mail for spreading," Central Command noted. "The top virus Sircam, which first arrived in a recipients inbox back in July, demonstrated yet another common characteristic in today's viruses, the idea of social engineering."